Pocono Youth Orchestra spring concerts Saturday, Sunday at ESU

Thursday

May 29, 2008 at 11:00 AM

The Pocono Youth Orchestra will present a spring concert on Saturday and Sunday (May 31 and June 1) in the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall at the Fine and Performing Arts Center of East Stroudsburg University beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Some of the selections that the Pocono Junior String Orchestra will perform include G.F. Handel’s Overture to Alexander Balus, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, arranged by Carrie Lane Gruselle, and I Got Rhythm by George and Ira Gershwin.

Selections to be performed by the Pocono Youth Orchestra include Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Prelude and Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance.

Tickets: www.pocono-youth-orchestra.org. There is a suggested donation of $5 at the door. Children are admitted free.

Auditions for the 2008-2009 season will take place on Monday, June 2, 2008, beginning at 5 p.m. at Stroudsburg Junior High School.The orchestras are under the direction of Anthony and Audrey Simons. For further information, call (610) 965-0268 or (570) 421-7113.

Senior soloist for the concert will be Grace Loudon, a 17-year old senior at Stroudsburg High School who has been a member of the PYO for the past five years.. Grace has studied piano for twelve and a half years with Marti Lantz of the Lantz Music Studio in Sciota. Grace won the Youth in Music Excellence Award in 2004 in the junior category and again in 2007 in the senior category; 1st place in the Philadelphia Region of the Aikens-Cadman Award in 2006; and 1st place in the state for the Stillman-Kelley Award in 2006. Grace has participated in the Pennsylvania Federation of Music Club’s Festival (PFMC) since 1997 in the piano solo event, and since 2005 in the piano concerto event. This year, Grace received the PFMC’s 5th gold cup; the Grand Cup.

In addition to the piano, Grace has played the viola for eight years. She is currently principal violist of the Pocono Youth Orchestra, the Stroudsburg High School Chamber Orchestra, the Pit Orchestra, and the Monroe Pike Orchestra. She also accompanies the Stroudsburg High School Show Choir on piano. Outside of music, Grace is an active officer of the Stroudsburg Model Congress Club and a member of the National Honor Society.

This fall she will attend Bryn Mawr College where she will major in biology on the pre-med track.